I am a former Councillor in South Liverpool and have also been leader of the Liverpool Lib Dem Group. I also work as a Lecturer at Edge Hill University.

Monday, 4 February 2013

Petition on military reservists in Liverpool

A member of the Royal Naval Reserve in Liverpool pointed out to me recently that Liverpool residents are potentially being treated less fairly than those on the Wirral.

Reservists have to take a fitness test every year (as they should really). So this involves putting some effort into staying fit.

On the Wirral they can currently use leisure centres for free. This is not the case in Liverpool.

I got this raised with the Council and the reply came back that this would be too costly to do.

The reply was data free and frankly there is no way the cost could be known without quite a lot of other information. It only costs the Council money if there are lots of them paying now who would then stop paying and the Council can't possibly know whether this is the case.

But putting that aside, isn't this more about supporting those who are prepared to deply and serve? The City Council has signed up to an armed forces covenant and in fact spends time publicising this. Perhaps making this change could be another instance of that covenant.

Anyway, working with the gentleman who raised the issues, we have created an on line petition on the Council's website. You can see the petition, and sign it, at the link below.